282 ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



Prof. Wyman, who has made numerous careful measure- 

 ments, that the accuracy of the workmanship of the bee has 

 been greatly exaggerated; so much so, that whatever the 

 typical form of the cell may be, it is rarely, if ever, realised. 

 Hence we may safely conclude that, if we could slightly 

 modify the instincts already possessed by the Melipona, and 

 in themselves not very wonderful, this bee would make a 

 structure as wonderfully perfect as that of the hive-bee. We 

 must suppose the Melipona to have the power of forming 

 her cells truly spherical, and of equal sizes; and this would 

 not be very surprising, seeing that she already does so to a 

 certain extent, and seeing what perfectly cylindrical bur- 

 rows many insects make in wood, apparently by turning 

 round on a fixed point. We must suppose the Melipona to 

 arrange her cells in level layers, as she already does her 

 cylindrical cells; and we must further suppose, and this is 

 the greatest difficulty, that she can somehow judge accu- 

 rately at what distance to stand from her fellow-labourers 

 when several are making their spheres; but she is already 

 so far enabled to judge of distance, that she always describes 

 her spheres so as to intersect to a certain extent; and then 

 she unites the points of intersection by perfectly flat sur- 

 faces. By such modifications of instincts which in them- 

 selves are not very wonderful — hardly more wonderful than 

 those which guide a bird to make its nest, — I believe that 

 the hive-bee has acquired, through natural selection, her 

 inimitable architectural powers. 



But this theory can be tested by experiment. Following 

 the example of Mr. Tegetmeier, I separated two combs, 

 and put between them a long, thick, rectangular strip of 

 wax: the bees instantly began to excavate minute circular 

 pits in it; and as they deepened these little pits, they made 

 * them wider and wider until they were converted into shal- 

 low basins, appearing to the eye perfectly true or parts of 

 a sphere, and of about the diameter of a cell. It was most 

 interesting to observe that, wherever several bees had be- 

 gun to excavate these basins near together, they had begun 

 their work at such a distance from each other, that by the 

 time the basins had acquired the above-stated width (i. e. 

 about the width of an ordinary cell), and were in depth 



